[KS] Portuguese during Hideyoshi invasion?

[gkl1 at columbia.edu]

Thanks to Owen Miller and Frog in a Well/Korea, I became aware of an
article on the supposed Portuguese posted on OhmyNews 0n 2006-07-03
by Ohmy reporter Ch'oe HyOngguk. He presented a Korean translation
and discussion of the same passage on which I made two postings
last week in response to an earlier one by Ernesto de Laurentis.
Ch'oe's Korean translation helped me to decipher more clearly the
smudged or otherwise hard-to-read characters in the sillok
compiler's note in the entry of SOnjo 31 Fifthmoon KyOngsul (26) =
1598 June 29, <SOnjo sillok>, kwOn 100, p. 25a. This has led me to
revise the paraphrase and partial translation of that note offered
in the first of my earlier postings (relevant extract copied
below):

      "[The P'arang] are also called Sea Devils
 (Haegwi). The pupils of their eyes are yellow,
 their faces lacquer black. All four limbs, hands
 and feet, are black. Their beards and hair are
 of short, round curls, like the hair of a black
 sheep. However, the head hair is all shaved off,
 and a bolt of yellow silk, bound and formed in a
 coil shaped like that of the coiled peach tree
 (pando), is worn on the top of the head. They are
 able to submerge themselves under water and poke
 holes in enemy ships.* They can also remain on the
 sea floor for several days eating sea creatures.
 Even in China these people are only rarely seen."
 ------
 *OhmyNews translates "attack enemy ships," but the
 character--still hard to discern--seems to mean a
 spear-type weapon. I prefer a more specific verb,
 in the sense of sink by poking a hole in the hull.

Since the P'arang soldiers were only discussed by King SOnjo and
Brigadier Peng, and not seen at court until two days later, it
would appear that this note was based on a visual sighting by court
reporters on the latter occasion, treated in my second posting of
April 13.

Richard Miller's recent posting on this thread suggested that
"P'arang" might be a transription of "Farang," common in southeast
Asia as version the Arab "ferenghi" or "Christian European," in the
1590s mainly applied to the Portuguese. This is certainly worth
consideration, but we should remember that the Chinese brigadier
would have pronounced this either in the Mandarin form "Polang" or
possibly in a southern dialect. The <p> of Polang is not of the
type that historically dentilabialized into <f>. In any case, I
think that we are dealing here with a an East Indian, south Asian
(perhaps Dravidians of south India?), or African ethnic group,
while still allowing the possibility that that group could have
been in some degree under Portuguese colonial control. Even if that
were the case, we would still have to wonder how the P'arang in 1598
had come to be working for the Chinese. Ch'oe HyOngguk uses the term
"yongbyOng," or "mercenary" for the P'arang soldiers, which is an
interesting take.

Gari Ledyard

Extract from my posting of 12 April 2007 16:15:40, part description,
part paraphrase and part (in quotes) translation, now revised and
corrected as above.
>      "...In the usual format such notes are
> printed in small and quite compressed characters,
> and in this case some of them are smudged or
> otherwise illegible. Even the legible parts are
> oddly worded. The clear parts indicate that these
> people, also called Haegwi (Ch. Haigui, sea devils),
> had curly black hair "like that of black sheep,"
> all over their bodies, except on top of their heads,
> which were completely bald. Their headwear was of
> coiled yellow cloth, worn in a manner that seems to
> suggest a turban." They are able to submerge
> themselves under water and poke holes inenemy ships.
> They can also stay at the bottom of the sea for
> several days," eating sea creatures (one odd phrasing
> here that I suspect is a misprint). "Even in China
> these people are only rarely seen."